Anneliese Corletto posted this selfie of her receiving treatment in the RAH.Source:Supplied

Somehow, the clear-minded aerospace engineering student stopped the damaged sedan without hitting another vehicle, then turned on the emergency lights before sliding from under the branch while onlookers ran to her aid.

Revealing the details of her near miss for the first time, she says knows how close she came to death. If the branch had penetrated her ribs, her injuries could have been fatal.

“Yeah, that would have been it,’’ she said from her hospital bed on Wednesday.

“It was terrifyingly close. It hit me when I was in ICU (intensive care unit) and I was reading the report which said (the branch) had gone through the driver’s seat. I didn’t know that.

“It was very, very close. There is no lesson in this, it was a complete fluke ... I couldn’t have avoided it.’’

She watched the branch fall on to her car and it must have pushed her sideways, but “there’s actually no superficial bruises, which is kind of disappointing because that would have looked better”, she said.